Best Supporting Actress · Episode 2 of 10 · 22 min
STOP — The Women Who Defeated the ERA
The Equal Rights Amendment sailed out of Congress in 1972 and was dead within ten years, defeated overwhelmingly by women. Phyllis Schlafly's kitchen-table organizing, The Total Woman, Bill Gothard's arena seminars, the Houston conference of 1977 and Concerned Women for America make up the counter-revolution, presented at full strength and then audited.
Who's who
- Phyllis Schlafly+2 more episodesConservative activist who founded STOP ERA and Eagle Forum
- Marabel Morgan+1 more episodeAuthor of The Total Woman, 1974's best-selling nonfiction book
- Bill Gothard+1 more episodeFounder of the Institute in Basic Youth Conflicts seminars
- Elisabeth Elliot+1 more episodeMissionary author of Let Me Be a Woman
- James DobsonPsychologist who founded Focus on the Family in 1977
- Beverly LaHayeOrganizer of Concerned Women for America
Where it happens
- Houston, Texas+5 more episodesSite of the 1977 National Women's Conference and rival Pro-Family Rally
- Nebraska+1 more episodeFirst state to vote to rescind its ERA ratification, in 1973
- Indiana+2 more episodesThe 35th and last state to ratify, in January 1977
Timeline
- March 1972ERA passes Congress; Hawaii ratifies within hours
- September 1972STOP ERA founded
- January 1977Indiana becomes the 35th and last ratifying state
- November 1977National Women's Conference and Pro-Family Rally in Houston
- October 1978Congress extends the ratification deadline to June 1982
- June 30, 1982Deadline expires with 35 of 38 needed states
Still debated
Whether Schlafly defeated the ERA or the amendment's shrinking legal payoff doomed it is argued. The rescissions' legal validity was never adjudicated, so the ERA is called dead as politics but disputed as law, and rally and membership numbers are movement-reported.
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